Farewell Facebook

It's amazing how social media is such a staple of our culture, and I would be lying if I said I didn't like it (most of the time). Honestly, I'm nosy, and I love knowing lots of little tidbits about people's lives. Let's be honest though, does knowing what someone ate for dinner or that they have new shoes make a difference in my life? So, my crazy husband got this idea that we should give up Facebook. Not because Facebook is bad. I think Facebook can actually be a great tool to stay connected and correspond with others. For us though, we realized it was a time waster. It was easy when we had down time to just default to Facebook. I'm sure we've all said it "I'm just going to check something for a minute." Next thing you know you're drowning in wedding photos of a friend of a friend of a friend, and you can't remember why you were on there in the first place. We didn't want our kids seeing us on the computer so much pointlessly spending precious time that could be well spent together. I also found that the more time I spent on Facebook, the more likely I was to compare myself to others or judge people unfairly based on the things they posted. So, we did it, we signed off of Facebook. I did stray back on one day to check for some info that I needed, and I all of a sudden couldn't stop scrolling, couldn't stop clicking. Oh that person got married, oh look at her cute baby's dress, oh they went on vacation, oh that cake they made looks good...ahhh! I was sucked in! I quickly closed the page and realized that the wealth of information was like overload for me and made me feel kind of anxious and nervous.
It's actually been kind of funny how many people have responded to our decision. It didn't really seem like a big deal to us and that no one would even notice, but boy was I wrong. With perplexed expressions people have asked, "So you just aren't on FB anymore?" " You deleted your account completely?" The answer is yes (well, I didn't delete my account, but Luke did).


So that's that. I'm still living, life has gone on, I just know a little bit less about people. The good thing is that now when I see people, I can ask them what they have been doing, and I will genuinely not already know. I'm also not wasting as much time, and I'm not comparing myself to/judging people based on their Facebook persona. Yes, I'm not the first to know things about my "friends" and I may miss a few birthdays without the reminder, but for the most part, I don't miss it at all! So, if you are a good friend, please don't forget to call me or email me!


I'm not saying I will never go on Facebook again, but for now, it's what I need.
Please validate me by liking this post...oh wait, wrong site.